Throat armour, adjustable as to its diameter, for shaft furnaces, particularly for blast furnaces



May 23, 1967 A. o'r'ro ET AL 3,321,198

THROAT ARMOUR, ADJUSTABLE AS TO ITS DIAMETER FOR LARLY FOR BLAST FURNACES SHAFT FURNACES, PARTICU Filed Nov. 17, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG. I

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May 23. 1967 A OTTC) ET AL 3,321,198

THROAT ARMOUR, ADJUSTABLE AS TO ITS DIAMETER, FOR SHAFT FURNACES, PARTICULARLY FOR BLAST FURNACES Filed Nov. 17, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 inventors;

United States Patent Office 3,321,198 Patented May 23, 1967 3,321,198 THROAT ARMOUR, ADJUSTABLE AS TO ITS DI- AMETER, FOR SHAFT FURNACES, PARTICU- LARLY FOR BLAST FURNACES Artur Otto, Duisburg-Buchholz, Hans-Jiirgen Mischke,

Essen, and Franz Lippeck, Essen-Borbeck, Germany, assignors to Beteiligungsund Patentverwaltungs-Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Essen, Germany, a corporation of Germany Filed Nov. 17, 1964, Ser. No. 411,840 Claims priority, application Germany, Nov. 27, 1963, B 74,429 6 Claims. (Cl. 266-27) The present invention relates to a throat anmour, adjustable as to its diameter, for shaft furnaces, particularly for blast furnaces, which comprises individual, preferably overlapping segments and the diameter of which is adjustable during the operation.

The protection of the upper portion of the lining of shaft furnaces, particularly of blast furnaces, below the bell-hopper from falling charging material by means of a throat armour is already known. Furthermore, it is not new to have the throat armour composed of individual segments and to protect the same against too heavy wear, as well as to suspend the segments movably and thus to subject the latter to a pendulum movement under the impact of the falling burden material. The diameter of the throat armour is, thereby, however, non-changeable. Since the diameter of the throat armour influences the distribution conditions in the furnace and, thereby, the working of the furnace, an optimum working of the furnace can be obtained in such manner, that with nonchangeable diameter of the throat armour the level of the burden column in the furnace is changed. But this restricts the effective volume of the furnace.

It has therefore also been proposed already to influence the charging conditions at constant level of the charging column in the furnace by changing the diameter of the throat armour during the operation.

The throat armour structures provided previously for this purpose have, however, the drawback that a wearreducing movability of the individual segments of this throat armour is not possible.

It is, therefore, one object of the present invention to provide a throat armour, adjustable as to its diameter, for shaft furnaces, particularly for blast furnaces, which avoids the drawbacks of the known designs of throat armours.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a throat armour, adjustable as to its diameter, for shaft furnaces, particularly for blast furnaces, wherein overlapping segments of the throat armour are suspended in such a way that they can oscillate during the operation of the furnace.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a throat armour, adjustable as to its diameter, for shaft furnaces, particularly for blast furnaces, wherein the adjusting forces causing a change of the diameter of the throat armour act at the pivot point at which the throat armour segments are suspended. It is of particular advantage to equip the throat armour with a suspension device movable at three pivot points, whereby one of the pivot points is secured by means of a rigid bearing, for example at the throat vessel, the second pivot point serves as the pendulum suspension of the throat armour segments and the third pivot point serves as the connection with a lifting device causing the adjustment of the throat armour diameter.

With these and other objects in view, which will become apparent in the following detailed description, the pres ent invention will be clearly understood in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is an axial section equipped with a throat armour;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary section along the lines 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic arrangement of the suspension of the throat armour segments; and

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary elevation, partly in section, of a second embodiment of the suspension device of the throat armour segments.

Referring now to the drawings, and in particular to FIGS. 1 and 2, the movable suspension device 1 of the throat armour segments 2 is equipped with three pivot points A, B and C, whereby the pivot point A is connected with a throat vessel 4 of the furnace by means of an attached eye 3 and the throat armour segment 2 is suspended for a pendulum movement in the pivot point B. The pivot point C of the suspension device 1 is secured by means of a butt-strap 5 and an intermediate ring 6 to a lifting device 7, which can be, for instance, a pressure-operated lifting cylinder. Since with the pendulum movement of the throat armour segments 2, caused by the falling charging material, the diameter of the throat armour and, thereby, the distribution conditions in the furnace are changed, a retaining ring 10 secured to furnace shaft jacket 9 by means of a bracket 8, is pro vided. It now the throat armour is set to its largest diameter by means of the lifting device 7, as shown in FIG; 1, and the throat armour segments 2 oscillate outwardly due to the falling chargingmaterial, this pendulum movement can only be extended up to the retaining ring 10. Since, however, the pendulum movement of the throat armour segments 2 must remain within a limited range, even though the throat armour is adjusted to any other diameter, each of the throat armour segments 2 is equipped at its lower end with inclined, limiting ribs 11. The angle a between the inclination of the lower end of the limiting ribs 11 and a horizontal plane is dependent upon the stroke which can be performed by the pivot point B through the pivot point A during the adjustment of the diameter of the throat armour in the extreme case.

If the pivot points B and B are (FIG. 3) the limiting points of the possible adjustment stroke, which results from the smallest and the largest diameter of the throat armour, a straight line between the pivot points B and B has a predetermined angle 5 in relation to a horizontal plane. It is of advantage, thereby, to choose the angle on between the inclination of the lower end of the limiting rib 11 and a horizontal plane of equal value as the inclination angle 5. If a throat armour segment 2 oscillates due to falling charging material, at the smallest or at any selected intermediate diameter of the throat armour, the limiting ribs 11 abut with their inclined face against the retaining ring 10 and limit the pendulum movement.

Referring now to FIG. 4 of the drawings, which discloses a second embodiment of the suspension device for the throat armour segments 2, the pivot points A and B, as well as the pivot points B and C are connected in this embodiment by means of a lever 12.

While we have disclosed several embodiments of the present invention, it is to be understood that these embodiments are given by example only and not in a limiting sense, the scope of the present invention being determined by the objects and the claims.

We claim:

1. In a shaft furnace, in particular a blast furnace, a plurality of cylindrically arranged overlapping segments of a throat armour axially suspended in said furnace and surrounding the axis of said furnace, suspension means pivotally affixed to said furnace, each of said segments being mounted solely from a single pivot point at the top thereof for freely suspending said overlapping segments from one point on said suspension means for permitting a of a blast furnace head pendulum movement of said overlapping segments during the operation of said furnace, moving lmeanis operatively connected to said suspension means for pivoting said suspension means about its support on the furnace to radially move said one point of said suspension means to thereby adjust the diameter of said cylindrically arranged overlapping segments, the forces effective for adjustment the diameter of said throat armour thereby acting exclusively on said single pivot points of said segments.

2. The furnace, as set forth in claim 1, wherein said suspension means comprises a plurality of suspension members each having three pivot points, one of said pivot points being the point from which said single pivot point of a segment is suspended, a second of said pivot points is pivotally secured by a rigid bearing to said furnace, said moving means comprising a lifting device movably secured to said furnace, and a third of said pivot points is pivotally connected with said lifting device, so that upon operation of said lifting device the position of said suspension member is adjusted.

3. The furnace, asset forth in claim 2, wherein each of said suspension members comprises a first lever and a second lever, one end of said first lever being pivotal ly connected to one end of said second lever at the point from which said single pivot point of said segment is suspended, the opposite ends of said first and second levers constituting said second and third pivot points.

4. The furnace, as set forth in claim 1, which includes a furnace shaft jacket, a bracket secured to and projecting inwardly from said furnace shaft jacket toward said segments, and a retaining ring surrounding said throat armour segments and secured to said bracket, in order to 4 limit outward oscillating movement of said throat armour segments.

5. The furnace, as set forth in claim 4, wherein each of said throat armour segments have an outer face upon which a radially outwardly oriented angular abutment rib is located such that a surface of said rib engages and cooperates with said retaining ring.

6. The furnace, as set forth in claim 5, wherein said one pivot point of each of aid suspension members, in its respective extreme positions; wherein the segments suspended therefrom define the largest and smallest diameter, respectively; defines a straight line at an angle towards a horizontal plane, and said angle is substantially identical with that which said surface of said angular abutment rib makes with a horizontal plane, so that each of said segments assumes a substantially vertical position regardless of the diameter defined by said segments.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,802,661 8/1957 McCutcheon 266-27 3,009,691 11/1961 Tsujihata et a1. 263-31 3,253,823 5/1966 Junker et al. 26625 FOREIGN PATENTS 625,591 2/ 1936 Germany. 907,872 3/1954 Germany. 1,003,775 3/ 1957 Genrnany.

JOHN F. CAMPBELL, Primary Examiner.

WHITMORE A. WILTZ, Examiner.

M. L. FAIGUS, Assistant Examiner. 

1. IN A SHAFT FURNACE, IN PARTICULAR A BLAST FURNACE, A PLURALITY OF CYLINDRICALLY ARRANGED OVERLAPPING SEGMENTS OF A THROAT ARMOUR AXIALLY SUSPENDED IN SAID FURNACE AND SURROUNDING THE AXIS OF SAID FURNACE, SUSPENSION MEANS PIVOTALLY AFFIXED TO SAID FURNACE, EACH OF SAID SEGMENTS BEING MOUNTED SOLELY FROM A SINGLE PIVOT POINT AT THE TOP THEREOF FOR FREELY SUSPENDING SAID OVERLAPPING SEGMENTS FROM ONE POINT ON SAID SUSPENSION MEANS FOR PERMITTING A PENDULUM MOVEMENT OF SAID OVERLAPPING SEGMENTS DURING THE OPERATION OF SAID FURNACE, MOVING MEANS OPERATIVELY CONNECTED TO SAID SUSPENSION MEANS FOR PIVOTING SAID SUSPENSION MEANS ABOUT ITS SUPPORT ON THE FURNACE 